Empire at War: Forces of Corruption preview

Forces of Corruption is an upcoming expansion to the real-time strategy game Star Wars Empire at War. Taking place just after the destruction of the Death Star, this edition places you in the role of a mercenary called Tyber Zann. He starts off in prison after being double crossed by Jabba the Hutt. The first mission is to break out of prison with your right-hand man and the help of the other prisoners.

As you'd expect this isn't much of a challenge and from here it's into the game proper. The expansion isn't just a new series of new missions it adds characters and character types as well as new strategies for achieving your objectives. In broad terms, however, the game plays the same as its predecessor so will be immediately familiar to experienced Empire at War players.

Cinematics

Parts of the game are introduced with cut-scenes which help to establish and carry a back story. In the preview code these are lacking some polish. Hopefully these will get an update before the game as released as they could add to the atmosphere. The rest of the presentation is also a little bit off at this stage but it looks it's going to polish up well with a little extra development.

As you enter the game and take a look around you and you'll see that you have new units available for space battles and for land battles. You also have a new unit for spreading your corruption known as a DeFiler. These units are created and then sent to neighbouring planets where they can establish some form of corruption.

Different planets allow different types of corruption, like creating a black market, kidnapping an official, piracy and so-on. Each type of corruption will cost you but compromising a planet has many advantages. Firstly, you can see the layout on the ground of all troops and structures which gives you strategic advantages when planning a land invasion. You can send additional DeFiler units in to Sabotage.

This allows you to destroy a structure on the surface without getting involved in a battle. Your enemies, like Jabba, can do similar sabotage and corruption attacks against you. As well as being able to attack the planet, corruption allows you to siphon income from it and opening a black market allows you get access to weapons that you otherwise wouldn't and the planets owner loses their bonuses from the planet.

Use the Force

You expect more of the same from an expansion and Forces of Corruption is set to deliver. On top of that the new units are going to present some new strategic opportunities for all of the sides. It's not just about the new Zann Consortium of course, the rest of the game gets some expansion as well. The Empire gains a new Super Star Destroyer Executor and the Emperor's flagship the Eclipse.

There are new Dark Trooper ground troops for improving the land battles. The rebels gain access to new heroes in the form of Yoda and Luke Skywalker who have gained fame from the destruction of the Death Star in the original game. These guys help out on the ground battles and the space battles are bolstered with the B Wing which adds heavy assault capabilities.

Because you're playing as a third party in all of this there are plenty of occasions when you'll stumble into a battle between the empire and the rebels. On these occasions you usually want to stay hidden away while they fight it out. Once their battle is resolve or almost resolved you can step in and clear up completing your mission objective. Alternatively, you can wade in and try to complete your objective amidst the rest of the battle.

Walking the Skies

Being an expansion, Forces of Corruption uses the same underlying game engine as the original. This means that graphics and sound effects will be pretty familiar to existing gamers. The space battles and ground battles have the same look in both normal and cinematic modes as you expect. Thus any flaws that you noticed in the original will also be replicated in this edition.

Likewise the sound effects are pretty much the same as from the original. The sound effects are pretty reasonable and reminiscent of the films. All of the new characters are well animated and are immediately recognisable. When you come up against Luke Skywalker you'll recognise his artificial hand and Yoda , of course, is unmistakable. There's a few flaws in the preview code related to the textures and collision detection but they should all be ironed out in time for the final release.

The space battles are probably better animated as you see your ships flying around dog-fighting with the enemies. All of the units are nicely recognisable and respond well to your commands moving around well in the fights to keep the enemies honest. Tactically the space fights tend to work better with the units being slightly more intelligent. Ground units in RTS games almost always seem to like standing still and Empire at War doesn't look like it's going to break the mould in this respect.

Space Pirates

Forces of Corruption is shaping up pretty well. It's going to provide exactly what you'll be expecting – more of the same compelling action from the original game, more recognisable characters from the Star Wars universe, and a new single player story mode. If you don't own the original then this doesn't look like the sort of thing that's going to make you rush out and buy it.

If you own the original and you want to get some more life out of it then this is definitely going worth getting excited for. It's a little bit rough around the edges at the moment but the core of new gameplay is there. It's difficult to do too much with an expansion of any game least of all an RTS. You can't change the story and you can't do much with the graphics. There's no surprises then that Forces of Corruption isn't going to redefine Empires at War and it's not going to redefine the RTS genre but it is going to provide some great Star Wars action.